I recently moved to a temporary home with a roommate as I continue on my quest to get my own place at the beginning of the year. Long story...

Anyway, I just got a laptop and since I don't have home internet (not until Saturday) I went to a local coffee shop expecting to get free internet access. No dice. Starbucks is teamed with T-Mobile and they charge for access. Coffee Bean is teamed up with ATT and they charge as well. So even though these are my first 2 stops I guess I made the wrong decision to head to a big company to get free access to something that might otherwise be offered for free elsewhere.

So where are these places that offer free wireless? I'm sure that with some looking I'll find something, but I'm impatient.

If you just need to check some email or something, try parking in an apartment complex. You'll be able to piggy back on someone's signal with no problem.

If it's surfing you want try a bookstore. I know our local Barnes & Noble has free wireless.

I'm actually in this business. I am one of those people that profits from the dorks paying $10 an hour at Starbucks. Yeah, baby!

Anyay, go here ---> Free Wireless in San Diego

If you want to do your own search, go here (be sure to select "free" when searching).

You'll have to let me know how you spend my $10. And thanks for the link!

Paid wireless access is one of the stupidest things ever. Seriously. Why are there so many idiots who will pay $10/hour at a coffee shop for wireless access that they should be able to get for free?

No offense, Rigsby. But come on.

That's almost as bad as people who pay for ringtones.

No offense taken. It would piss me off too if I didn't get it for free because I work for one of those companies.

There are some towns in the US that are starting to provide "free wireless" but they are few and far between, and it typically only encompasses downtown.

It's the same as anything - it's profitable. Until people start figuring out ways around it, or a LARGE provider decides to undercut everyone else it'll stay that way. Or if another technology comes out that is faster and more easily accessible. I think that'll eventually happen, or the fees will get drastically reduced, just like using a dial modem today.

In all honesty though, consumers are not the demographic that companies like mine want to make money from. You are flies on the elephant's ass. We make much more money from corporations that buy bulk employee accounts. We have some customers that pay a monthly fee for 10-20,000 employees whether they use the service or not. Cha-ching!

But the same companies as like the ones you work for will litigate the hell out of cities and towns who try and create city-wide free municipal wireless. Part of the reason why wireless is profitable is because these companies are fighting like hell to keep it that way.

Internet wants to be free. It positively aches to be free. It's the Sprints, Comcasts, and AT&Ts of the world that are keeping it the way it is now.

But hey, that's not your fault or problem and I don't blame you for it.

*steps down from soapbox*

It's OK. You can rant. My company resells what's already out there (they don't own anything themselves, in the US at least), so we're just skimming profits off the top. It's the bastards below us that cause all the problems.

Hmmm, could it be that you work for T-Mobile?

No, but we have access to the T-Mobile network, which is who covers Starbucks. I work for British Telecom - I think someone else figured it out, maybe in another thread. Many of the wireless providers license access to each other. It's a very incestuous business...

Yeah, I know. I am also in the cellular/wireless business. We develop software for cell phones.

I need to move to the US, I doubt that anyone here would give free internet at all.

*sulks*

In the US you won't find a ton of free access, and if you do it's typically in public areas. "Free" is definitely not widespread. For example, Internet access at Starbucks is $10. I would never use it if I didn't have backdoor access to it.

Here in Minnesota you can find a ton of free wireless locations. I think it's our practical Scandinavian frugality response to the Starbucks/Bookstore bastards that charge.

Personally, I almost never use the free wireless, but rather base my decisions on power outlet availability. I use a Sprint cellular modem and then hook into a VPN connection just for paranoid security sake (I do a lot of remote access to customer networks).

I always have to chastise the "Butterburger" vendor in town about their having wireless, but the only outlet is one I have to moved a potted plant to get to.

I know the real intent of this thread is the discussion of free wireless, but a tangent of the opening post was "Our little Error404 is growing up and getting a place of his own."

So how much progress have you made, you non-emailing-unless-you're-deathly-ill-son-of-a-bitch? Are you still stuck with rommates?